Dutch dredging and maritime firm Boskalis and its partner KS Investments have agreed to divest their harbour towage dealings in Singapore and Malaysia to Italian towage operator Rimorchiatori Mediterranei.
The agreement involves the sale of Keppel Smit Towage (KST) and Maju Maritime.
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For its 49% equity share, Boskalis will obtain nearly $90.95m (€80m) in cash.
The deal is awaiting regulatory clearance and anticipated to complete in H1 2022.
During the past two years, KST and Maju Maritime contributed $4.55m (€4m) annually to the company’s net profit.
Boskalis disclosed its strategy to sell its harbour towage activities in 2019, offloading its interests in Kotug Smit Towage and Saam Smit Towage in that year.
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By GlobalDataKST was created as a joint venture between Keppel and Smit, a wholly-owned unit of Boskalis, in 1991.
In a statement, Boskalis said: “Over the past thirty years, KST has developed into one of the largest and leading harbour tug service providers in Southeast Asia.”
KST, along with its joint venture in Malaysia, runs around 58 tug boats in Singapore.
Rimorchiatori Mediterranei is a subsidiary of Rimorchiatori Riuniti Group and acts as a harbour towage operator in Italy.
Rimorchiatori Mediterranei manages a fleet of more than 100 modern ships in over 20 major ports, with nearly 900 employees.
Last December, Boskalis announced the inclusion of a multipurpose DP2 vessel, Boka Tiamat, to its fleet.
The new vessel is intended to be utilised for offshore wind projects in Taiwan.
